Les Miserables: Even the thread will make you cry - Part 2

[JP]

Haha! Mess.

 

[narrows101]

God, that other forum...if I hear one more person complain with the words: "I'm a purist..."

I've always translated "I'm a purist" with "I'm an unreasonable pain in the ass who's going whine like an infant about anything that isn't like the thing I'm used to".

Not sure which board you're referring to, but I scream at the posts on the broadwayworld.com board.

 

[Anita18]

God, that other forum...if I hear one more person complain with the words: "I'm a purist..."

I've always translated "I'm a purist" with "I'm an unreasonable pain in the ass who's going whine like an infant about anything that isn't like the thing I'm used to".

That could describe many of us here when it comes to comic book movies, actually. Fandoms are never too different from each other...

 

[JP]

I'm extremely easy to please.

 

[danoyse]

Not sure which board you're referring to, but I scream at the posts on the broadwayworld.com board.

Oh god, I never go there. It's like where all insolent teenagers go to gripe about theater. The board where the one person saw the movie is actually a Disney message board. Two of my friends were mods there, and one quit because she couldn't put up with them there anymore

I'm extremely easy to please.

To quote Anne Hathaway's other big movie this year, "I'm adaptable..."

It's like they're saying Colm Wilkinson and Alfie Boe are "the standard", and anything less isn't Les Mis. And both of them are amazing. But I've seen the show nine times, and I've seen 7 or 8 Valjeans (I know I saw Craig Schulman twice, maybe Randall Keith or J. Mark McVey twice), and I've seen each one take their own thing to the role.

It doesn't have to be the concert or the cast album, especially since it's a film and it's being done a totally different way. If you only want it one way, why bother making a film if you don't think it can be done any better??

 

[danoyse]

Guess who's getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the date of the Hollywood premiere?

Nice! Go Hugh!!

 

[Filmboy]

Out of the five new clips, my favourites are definately the one with Samantha Barks walking in the rain, singing.....you can feel her pain and sadness

And the last clip with Fantine.....it was very sad as well....you can already feel sorry for her character.....

I really hope Anne gets nominated and Hugh as well.

Congrats to Hugh for finally getting his well deserved Walk of Fame

 

[Earthland]

If I hadn't known that there is supposed to be music in the background, I wouldn't even have noticed it. People were complaining about the quiet orchestration in the trailer, but in these clips it's nearly non-existent.

 

[narrows101]

Nice! Go Hugh!!

I think Dec.13 is the date of the Golden Globe nominations and the Hollywood premiere of the movie.

 

[Kansiov]

Spoiler

She looks like Christian Bale in the Machinist...

 

[danoyse]

Wow, she's almost unrecognizable.

 

[The Guard]

At The End of The Day is a nice clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHwyCp6ah6U

Apparently when they were singing live, they forgot to sing with breath support, and they decided to "speak-sing" half their verses and avoid proper phrasing…I get what they’re going for…but thus far, it falls a bit short of what LES MIS is musically. This is going to divide audiences, especially those with knowledge of the show.

It's a little odd that so far Russell Crowe seems to be doing some of the best singing (except for Hathaway).

 

[DACrowe]

Not really. Theatre kids always ***** about musical adaptations to the screen. Sometimes they make a good point (Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera) and sometimes they miss the forest for the trees for radically clever/reimagined adaptations (Sweeney Todd). Either way, they always complain and are usually a vocal minority relegated to online. Otherwise, Chicago would never have won best picture if their dissatisfaction really represented a "divided audience."

Most people who will see this movie will never have seen the show. In which case, the film will stand or fall with audiences on its own.

 

[CGHulk]

Wow the songs sung in the stage play are so much more powerful. In the movie here they sound weak as in At the End of the Day which doesn't sound right acoustically recorded in that small room. Shouldn't the factory floor be big with a huge group of women? With more women singing it would sound more epic.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Spoiler

She looks like Christian Bale in the Machinist...

 

[danoyse]

Wow the songs sung in the stage play are so much more powerful. In the movie here they sound weak as in At the End of the Day which doesn't sound right acoustically recorded in that small room. Shouldn't the factory floor be big with a huge group of women? With more women singing it would sound more epic.

Not really. I thought the most powerful part of the clip was Fantine trying to run for Valjean and being dragged out - which didn't happen in the stage version. Where in the text does it say the factory is huge with more women? It's about as big as it was in the stage version, with about as many women.

 

[Anita18]

At The End of The Day is a nice clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHwyCp6ah6U

Apparently when they were singing live, they forgot to sing with breath support, and they decided to "speak-sing" half their verses and avoid proper phrasing…I get what they’re going for…but thus far, it falls a bit short of what LES MIS is musically. This is going to divide audiences, especially those with knowledge of the show.

It's a little odd that so far Russell Crowe seems to be doing some of the best singing (except for Hathaway).

Wut.

He's one of the weaker singers - it's obvious that Javert's songs are too high for his natural range. But at least he IS supporting his tone even if he is struggling, and can't enunciate or emote with his singing voice worth a damn.

It actually pains me to hear Amanda Seyfried sing, her soprano is just so weak. Eddie Redmayne is singing softly but he's got great tone. His "Empty Chairs with Empty Tables" is going to brutal.

And we all know that Hugh Jackman is a trained Broadway singer. There is no contest between him and Crowe.

Not really. Theatre kids always ***** about musical adaptations to the screen. Sometimes they make a good point (Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera) and sometimes they miss the forest for the trees for radically clever/reimagined adaptations (Sweeney Todd). Either way, they always complain and are usually a vocal minority relegated to online. Otherwise, Chicago would never have won best picture if their dissatisfaction really represented a "divided audience."

Most people who will see this movie will never have seen the show. In which case, the film will stand or fall with audiences on its own.

Hmm I thought they sang pretty well in Chicago. Richard Gere was probably the weakest link.

Or maybe my standards have lowered since POTO.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[CGHulk]

Not really. I thought the most powerful part of the clip was Fantine trying to run for Valjean and being dragged out - which didn't happen in the stage version. Where in the text does it say the factory is huge with more women? It's about as big as it was in the stage version, with about as many women.

Powerful meaning the size of the chorus, and the bloodthirsty and meanness lack there of from the female singers, here the look more hesitant.
There supposed to be 18 people singing the main parts. There are 36 people total on the stage during the chorus consisting of both men and women.
[YT]NswrXps_E18[/YT]

 

[DACrowe]

That's the anniversary concert. They are making it bigger for it to earn its concert title. I have never done a head count, but the numbers are likely smaller in a weekly production in London or when it played on Broadway...certainly on tour like when it came near me. Anyway, it works because the scene is supposed to be intimate in the film. Do not compare it to how it worked on stage, just ask if it works on film. For example Johnny Depp does not have the voice of Len Cariou or George Hearn. But does it work in the movie? Fantastically. Again, Russell Crowe does not impress me much vocally, but as long as it doesn't become a burden for the film, like say Gerard Butler supposedly as the "Angel of Music" and an Opera Genius, it may work. So far, the clips have worked.

 

[danoyse]

That's the anniversary concert. They are making it bigger for it to earn its concert title. I have never done a head count, but the numbers are likely smaller in a weekly production in London or when it played on Broadway...certainly on tour like when it came near me. Anyway, it works because the scene is supposed to be intimate in the film. Do not compare it to how it worked on stage, just ask if it works on film. For example Johnny Depp does not have the voice of Len Cariou or George Hearn. But does it work in the movie? Fantastically. Again, Russell Crowe does not impress me much vocally, but as long as it doesn't become a burden for the film, like say Gerard Butler supposedly as the "Angel of Music" and an Opera Genius, it may work. So far, the clips have worked.

Exactly. The concert used three different casts, and a huge chorus. The actual stage show as used about as many people as you saw in the film clip.

The main drama is really between the factory girl who rats out Fantine to the foreman, and the others just gang up on her. Having an entire huge factory suddenly turn on her would look ridiculous.

 

[CGHulk]

That's the anniversary concert. They are making it bigger for it to earn its concert title.

Well the movie could be that big, why not? Why not?

In the 2008 film version with Liam Neeson the factory was a big building with 50 or so workers.

 

[danoyse]

Well the movie could be that big, why not? Why not?

In the 2008 film version with Liam Neeson the factory was a big building with 50 or so workers.

Because it was a live concert playing a in big arena. If they used the same amount of people they normally used in the stage show (something that clearly worked fine in the 27 years since the production started), it would be lost in such a large venue.

The movie could be that big, but it certainly doesn't need to be.

 

[CaptainCanada]

They're going for the intimate approach with the filming, which I think is the right way overall. Les Mis isn't a David Lean epic, it's a drama about the desperately poor in very confined circumstances.

I thought Hathaway's acting in the "End of the Day" sequence was devastatingly effective, even in that brief bit.

 

[AnneFan]

I went to see Skyfall again yesterday and as I was buying my ticket they had Les Mis trailers playing at full blast, posters and cardboard cut outs everywhere. Really close now.

Spoiler

She looks like Christian Bale in the Machinist...

Wow, just wow. It's really starting to hit him home just how determined Anne was for this role. That photo speaks volumes.

Anne will be in the January 2013 issue of Glamour:

Spoiler

On swearing of shopping (for awhile):
"I looked at my life when I was on my honeymoon, which was gorgeous, and I thought, I need nothing. I'm not buying myself a single thing for the rest of this year."

On her competitive nature:
"I like to fight for a job. You feel like you've emerged from the scrap, and you're like, 'OK, this one's mine. Did it. Done.'"

On the struggles of females:
"We get pressure to define ourselves as women by how wild we are: How many guys did you sleep with? How drunk did you get?"

On her fond memories:
"When I think back to some of the most fun nights in my life, it was just me out dancing."